HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEW MEXICO. New Mexico (Spanish: Nuevo México [ˈnweβo ˈmexiko]; Navajo: Yootó Hahoodzo [jo:tó haho:dzo]) is a state located in the southwestern and western regions of the United States. It is usually considered one of the Mountain States. New Mexico is the 5th most extensive, the 36th most populous, and the 6th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Inhabited by indigenous peoples of the Americas for many centuries before European exploration, New Mexico was subsequently part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. Later, it was part of the newly formed nation of Mexico for a short period before becoming a U.S. territory and eventually a U.S. state. Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, including descendants of Spanish colonists who have lived in the area for over 400 years. It also has the second-highest percentage of Native Americans after Alaska, and the fourth-highest total number of Native Americans after California, Oklahoma, and Arizona.[6] The tribes in the state consist of mostly Navajo, Puebloan and the Apache peoples. As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Hispanic and Native-American influences, both of which are reflected in the state flag. The scarlet and gold colors of the New Mexico flag are taken from the royal standards of Spain, along with the ancient sun symbol of the Zia, a Pueblo-related tribe.[7] New Mexico, or Nuevo México in Spanish, is often incorrectly believed to have taken its name from the nation of Mexico. However, New Mexico was given its name in 1563, and again in 1581, by Spanish explorers who believed the area contained wealthy Indian cultures similar to those of the Mexica (Aztec) Empire.[8][9][10] Mexico, formerly known as New Spain, adopted its name centuries later in 1821, after winning independence from Spanish rule. Consequently, New Mexico was only a part of the independent federal republic of Mexico for 12 years, 1836 through 1848. The two developed as neighboring Spanish speaking communities, with relatively independent histories. Contents [hide] 1 Geography 1.1 Climate 1.2 Flora and fauna 2 History 3 Demographics 3.1 Population 3.1.1 Cities, towns and counties 3.2 Race and ancestry 3.3 Languages 3.3.1 Official language 3.4 Religion 3.4.1 Catholic Church hierarchy 4 Economy 4.1 Economic indicators 4.2 Oil and gas production 4.3 Federal government 4.4 Economic incentives 4.5 State taxes 5 Transportation 5.1 Road 5.2 Urban mass transit 5.3 Rail 5.3.1 Freight 5.3.2 Passenger 5.4 Aerospace 6 Government and politics 6.1 Government 6.2 Politics 7 Education 7.1 Primary and secondary education 7.2 Colleges and universities 7.2.1 Major state universities 8 Culture 8.1 Art and literature 8.2 Sports 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 11.1 Primary sources 12 External links Geography[edit] Further information: List of counties in New Mexico See also: Delaware Basin Wheeler Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Range Chaco Canyon Carlsbad Caverns White Sands National Monument Rio Grande Gorge Shiprock The states total area is 121,412 square miles (314,460 km2).[11] The eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and three miles (5 km) west of 103° W longitude with Texas.[12] On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, with Chihuahua making up about 90% of that. The western border with Arizona runs along the 109° 03 W longitude.[11] The southwestern corner of the state is known as the Bootheel. The 37° N latitude parallel forms the northern boundary with Colorado. The states New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah come together at the Four Corners in the northwestern corner of New Mexico. New Mexico, although a large state, has little water. Its surface water area is about 250 square miles (650 km2). The New Mexican landscape ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken mesas to high, snow-capped peaks. Despite New Mexicos arid image, heavily forested mountain wildernesses cover a significant portion of the state, especially towards the north. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost part of the Rocky Mountains, run roughly north-south along the east side of the Rio Grande in the rugged, pastoral north. The most important of New Mexicos rivers are the Rio Grande, Pecos, Canadian, San Juan, and Gila. The Rio Grande is tied for the fourth longest river in the U.S.[13] The U.S. government protects millions of acres of New Mexico as national forests including:[14] Carson National Forest Cibola National Forest (headquartered in Albuquerque) Lincoln National Forest Santa Fe National Forest (headquartered in Santa Fe) Gila National Forest Gila Wilderness Areas managed by the National Park Service include:[15] Aztec Ruins National Monument at Aztec Bandelier National Monument in Los Alamos Capulin Volcano National Monument near Capulin Carlsbad Caverns National Park near Carlsbad Chaco Culture National Historical Park at Nageezi El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail El Malpais National Monument in Grants El Morro National Monument in Ramah Fort Union National Monument at Watrous Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument near Silver City Old Spanish National Historic Trail Pecos National Historical Park in Pecos Petroglyph National Monument near Albuquerque Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument at Mountainair Santa Fe National Historic Trail White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo Visitors also frequent the surviving native pueblos of New Mexico. Tourists visiting these sites bring significant money to the state. Other areas of geographical and scenic interest include Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The Gila Wilderness lies in the southwest of the state. Climate[edit] The climate of New Mexico is generally semi-arid to arid, though there are areas of continental and alpine climates, and its territory is mostly covered by mountains, high plains, and desert. The Great Plains (High Plains) are located in the eastern portion of the state, similar to the Colorado high plains in eastern Colorado. The two states share similar terrain, with both having plains, mountains, basins, mesas, and desert lands. New Mexicos average precipitation rate is 13.9 inches (350 mm) a year. The average annual temperatures can range from 64 °F (18 °C) in the southeast to below 40 °F (4 °C) in the northern mountains.[11] During the summer months, daytime temperatures can often exceed 100 °F (38 °C) at elevations below 5,000 feet (1,500 m), the average high temperature in July ranges from 97 °F (36 °C) at the lower elevations to the upper 70s (°F, up to 26 °C) at the higher elevations. Many cities in New Mexico can have temperature lows in the teens. The highest temperature recorded in New Mexico was 122 °F (50 °C) at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Loving on June 27, 1994 and the lowest recorded temperature is −50 °F (−46 °C) at Gavilan on February 1, 1951.[16] Flora and fauna[edit] New Mexico contains extensive habitat for many plants and animals, especially in desert areas and piñon-juniper woodlands. Creosote bush, mesquite, cacti, yucca, and desert grasses, including black grama, purple three-awn, tobosa, and burrograss, cover the broad, semiarid plains that cover the southern portion of the state. The northern portion of the state is home to many tree species such as ponderosa pine, aspen, cottonwood, spruce, fir, and Russian olive, which is an invasive species. Native birds include the greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)[17] and wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).[18] Other fauna present in New Mexico include black bears, cougars, jaguars, coyotes, porcupines, skunks, Mexican gray wolves, deer, elk, plains bison, collared peccary, bighorn sheep, squirrels, chipmunks, pronghorn, western diamondback, kangaroo rat, jackrabbit and a multitude of other birds, reptiles, and rodents. The black bear native to New Mexico, Ursus americanus amblyceps, was formally adopted as the states official animal in 1953.[19] History[edit] Main article: History of New Mexico Ancestral Pueblo territory shown in pink over New Mexico The first known inhabitants of New Mexico were members of the Clovis culture of Paleo-Indians.[20]:19 Later inhabitants include American Indians of the Mogollon and Ancestral Pueblo peoples cultures.[21]:52 By the time of European contact in the 16th century, the region was settled by the villages of the Pueblo peoples and groups of Navajo, Apache and Ute.[20]:6,48 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado assembled an enormous expedition at Compostela in 1540–1542 to explore and find the mystical Seven Golden Cities of Cibola as described by Fray Marcos de Niza.[21]:19–24 The name Nuevo México was first used by a seeker of gold mines named Francisco de Ibarra who explored far to the north of Mexico in 1563 and reported his findings as being in a New Mexico.[22] Juan de Oñate officially established the name when he was appointed the first governor of the new Province of New Mexico in 1598.[21]:36–37 The same year he founded the San Juan de los Caballeros colony, the first permanent European settlement in the future state of New Mexico,[23] on the Rio Grande near Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.[21]:37 Oñate extended El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, Royal Road of the Interior, by 700 miles (1,100 km) from Santa Bárbara, Chihuahua to his remote colony.[24]:49 The settlement of Santa Fe was established at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains, around 1608.[24]:182 The city, along with most of the settled areas of the state, was abandoned by the Spanish for 12 years (1680–1692) as a result of the successful Pueblo Revolt.[25] After the death of the Pueblo leader Popé, Diego de Vargas restored the area to Spanish rule.[21]:68–75 While developing Santa Fe as a trade center, the returning settlers founded Albuquerque in 1706 from existing surrounding communities,[21]:84 naming it for the viceroy of New Spain, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque.[26] Province of New Mexico when it belonged to Mexico in 1824 As a part of New Spain, the claims for the province of New Mexico passed to independent Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence.[21]:109 The Republic of Texas claimed the portion east of the Rio Grande when it seceded from Mexico in 1836, when it incorrectly assumed the older Hispanic settlements of the upper Rio Grande were the same as the newly established Mexican settlements of Texas. Texas only attempt to establish a presence or control in the claimed territory was the failed Texas Santa Fe Expedition, when their entire army was captured and jailed by Hispanic New Mexico militia. The extreme northeastern part of New Mexico was owned by France, and sold to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.[27] By 1800 the Spanish population had reached 25,000, but Apache and Comanche raids on Hispanic settlers were common until well into the period of U.S. occupation.[28] Civil war effects in New Mexico New Mexico territory included Arizona, 1860 Territories now divided, 1866 Following the Mexican-American War, from 1846–1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the American Southwest and California, to the United States of America.[21]:132 In the Compromise of 1850 Texas ceded its claims to the area lying east of the Rio Grande in exchange for ten million dollars[21]:135 and the US government established the New Mexico Territory on September 9, 1850, including most of the present-day states of Arizona and New Mexico, and part of Colorado. The United States acquired the southwestern boot heel of the state and southern Arizona below the Gila river in the mostly desert Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which was related to the construction by the US of a transcontinental railroad.[21]:136 The compromise of 1850 created the current boundary between New Mexico and Texas. It is also considered during this time a surveyors error awarded the Permian Basin to the State of Texas, which included the city of El Paso. Claims to the Permian were initially dropped by New Mexico in a bid to gain statehood in 1911. New Mexico played a role in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. Both Confederate and Union governments claimed ownership and territorial rights over New Mexico Territory. In 1861 the Confederacy claimed the southern tract as its own Arizona Territory and waged the ambitious New Mexico Campaign in an attempt to control the American Southwest and open up access to Union California. Confederate power in the New Mexico Territory was effectively broken after the Battle of Glorieta Pass in 1862. However, the Confederate territorial government continued to operate out of Texas, and Confederate troops marched under the Arizona flag until the end of the war. Additionally, over 8,000 troops from New Mexico Territory served the Union.[29] Homesteader and his children in Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940 Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union on January 6, 1912.[21]:166 A major oil discovery in 1928 brought prosperity to the state, especially Lea County and the town of Hobbs, named for James Hobbs, who was a homesteader there in 1907.[30] The Midwest State No. 1 well, begun in late 1927 with a standard cable-tool drilling rig, revealed the first signs of oil from the Hobbs field on June 13, 1928. Drilled to 4,330 feet and completed a few months later, the well produced 700 barrels of oil per day on state land. The Midwest Refining Companys Hobbs well produced oil until 2002. The New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources called it “the most important single discovery of oil in New Mexico’s history.”[31] During World War II, the first atomic bombs were designed and manufactured at Los Alamos and the first was tested at Trinity site in the desert on the White Sands Proving Grounds between Socorro and Alamogordo.[21]:179–180 Historical population Census Pop. %± 1850 61,547 — 1860 93,516 51.9% 1870 91,874 −1.8% 1880 119,565 30.1% 1890 160,282 34.1% 1900 195,310 21.9% 1910 327,301 67.6% 1920 360,350 10.1% 1930 423,317 17.5% 1940 531,818 25.6% 1950 681,187 28.1% 1960 951,023 39.6% 1970 1,017,055 6.9% 1980 1,303,302 28.1% 1990 1,515,069 16.2% 2000 1,819,046 20.1% 2010 2,059,179 13.2% Est. 2014 2,085,527 1.3% Source: 1910–2010[32] New Mexico has benefited from federal government spending. It is home to three Air Force bases, White Sands Missile Range, and the federal research laboratories Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. The states population grew rapidly after World War II, going from 531,818 in 1940 to 1,819,046 in 2000.[33][34] Employment growth areas in New Mexico include microelectronics, call centers, and Indian casinos.[35] Demographics[edit] See also: List of settlements in New Mexico by population and New Mexico locations by per capita income New Mexico Population Density Map Population[edit] The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of New Mexico was 2,085,287 on July 1, 2013, a 1.3% increase since the 2010 United States Census.[2] Of the people residing in New Mexico, 51.4% were born in New Mexico, 37.9% were born in a different US state, 1.1% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parent(s), and 9.7% were foreign born.[36] 7.5% of New Mexicos population was reported as under 5 years of age, 25% under 18, and 13% were 65 or older.[37] Women make up approximately 51% of the population.[37] As of 2000, 8% of the residents of the state were foreign-born.[37] Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic ancestry, at 47 percent (as of July 1, 2012), including descendants of Spanish colonists and recent immigrants from Latin America.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 20:15:13 +0000
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